Test Site For Canker May Move

September 20, 1986|By Adam Yeomans of The Sentinel Staff

TAVARES — Under pressure from citrus growers who do not want a canker-experiment station in Lake or Polk counties, state Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner said Friday that he now favors conducting field tests in North Florida instead.

Unless scientists can show that such research would not be feasible outside the state's citrus-growing regions, Conner said, he would settle for an outdoor canker-test site in Gainesville, Hastings or another area in North Florida.

''I consider this critical,'' Conner said of the test site, later adding that he ''won't say what the ultimate decision will be'' until he confers with canker officials next week about the test site.

Conner and other agricultural officials met for three hours Friday with more than 100 growers at the Lake County Agricultural Center after growers objected last week to plans for a test site in south Lake or north Polk.

A test site in south Lake approved two weeks ago by Conner and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials has been put on hold, Conner said.

Canker researchers said Friday that they favor a site in Polk, 3 miles from the Lake County site, because it is more isolated than the Lake site and is more than a mile from any grove or citrus nursery.

John Odom of J.E. Odom & Sons Citrus Nursery in Groveland echoed the sentiments of many growers who spoke at the hearing when he said he did not want a ''canker factory'' near his nursery.

Some growers said they favored conducting canker tests in Polk or Lake to learn more about the ''nursery canker'' that has plagued the state's citrus industry since August 1984.

Since the canker first appeared, the state has burned about 20 million trees in an effort to stop its spread.

Canker does not harm humans but can scar fruit, weaken trees and cause leaves to drop off.

If the outdoor tests are conducted north of the state's citrus-growing region, they would have to be scaled back because of colder weather in the northern region, said Tim Gottwald, a plant pathologist with the USDA's Orlando office.

Researchers fear that results obtained at a northern site might be different than those acquired at a test site inside the Citrus Belt, Gottwald said.